Why is the dragon considered dubious

I am looking to add it to my repertoire as my main answer to 1.e4. I find the najdorf a bit difficult and white has many options against it. I find that in the dragon, black can determine the course of play and sacrifices are the norm.

its not. It is considered risky, mostly because black has to play very accurately while whites plan is very straightfoward.Believe it or not it has a reputation of being extremely drawish and boring at upper level.

Dubious opening? Unless it violates opening principles any opening is viable below master level. Your going from the najdorf Sicilian to the Dragon? Whew you must have hours on end to study the mountain of theory that comes with those openings....not to mention all those anti-Sicilian lines you need to know as you might get a true Sicilian in a tournament game 1 out 3 games....too much theory....no thanks

It's fine if you're a computer. If you're a human as the above poster said you have to play very accurately.

It doesn't have a reputation of being boring/drawish at the upper level, you must be thinking of the accelerated or hyperaccelerated dragon.

Actually, it is pretty drawish at the upper level. You often end up in imbalances that are often dynamic in a middlegame, but useless in an endgame, like maybe Rook (White) for Bishop and Pawn (Black).

Tradedowns are commonplace in the Dragon. Not the case for the Najdorf.

Dubious opening? Unless it violates opening principles any opening is viable below master level. Your going from the najdorf Sicilian to the Dragon? Whew you must have hours on end to study the mountain of theory that comes with those openings....not to mention all those anti-Sicilian lines you need to know as you might get a true Sicilian in a tournament game 1 out 3 games....too much theory....no thanks

If you have to use "below master level" to validate an opening, then it's dubious. At master level, the Dragon is NOT dubious, just DRAWISH! However, you can follow opening principals and an opening still be dubious. A few examples include:

2) Latvian Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5) - This one is very contraversial. A correspondence player will say it's completely sound and that other people are nuts. Non-correspondence players will say it's the biggest piece of c**p that anybody can play, and is busted. I do play correspondence chess, and I have played it as Black, but even I don't think it's sound. Just my humble opinion. I think 3.Nxe5 is advantage White. All other moves Black has a way to equalize.

3) Scandinavian Gambit Accepted (1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Nf6 3.c4 c6 4.dxc6) - It's been known for a long time that accepting the gambit is extremely dicey for White and that White should transpose to a Panov-Botvinnik Attack with 4.d4 cxd5 5.Nc3

dragon is a double edge opening ,maybe at high level can be drawish because of GM 's memorizing openings unlike us ameteurs ,and if you are not working too deeply in dragon.you can lost because of opening itself is sharp unlike other quite openings dragon is sharp and at some points you have to to some key moves

I am looking to add it to my repertoire as my main answer to 1.e4. I find the najdorf a bit difficult and white has many options against it. I find that in the dragon, black can determine the course of play and sacrifices are the norm.

2) Latvian Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5) - This one is very contraversial. A correspondence player will say it's completely sound and that other people are nuts. Non-correspondence players will say it's the biggest piece of c**p that anybody can play, and is busted. I do play correspondence chess, and I have played it as Black, but even I don't think it's sound. Just my humble opinion. I think 3.Nxe5 is advantage White. All other moves Black has a way to equalize.

The Latvian hasn't been played at all in serious correspondence games (ICCF and LSS) since ages- for very apparent reasons.

You wrongly think 3.Nxe5 is the only way to a white advantage. 3.Nc3 is equally good, and quite simpler.

"Drawish at upper level" is one of the most pointless things people can post in a forum. Most people here are not upper level players and therefore it is not necessarily drawish below this. And the dragon isn't at all drawish at lower levels.

The key is the Chinese Dragon. The Main Lines against 9.Bc4 are full of perpetuals and trade-downs. Also against 9.0-0-0 it seems everything is bad for Black except 9...d5! 10.ed Nxd5 11.Nxc6 bc 12.Bd4 Bxd4 13.Qxd4 Qb6 (or some similar line)

The dragon is not dubious. It is just a narrow opening in the sense that there are few critical variations, mostly in the yugoslav. As long as you know the main lines and ideas in that line, and you are not scared of an attack on your king, you'll be fine.

One of the problems that Black faces when playing the Dragon is that there are LOTS of plans for White, while Black has to remember ALL the right moves. One step aside, and you are likely to lose quickly and painfully. Only brave people with a lot of experience and understanding of the system can employ it successfully. I would say that this opening is good as a surprise weapon, but not as a main line. And yes, I have played more games in the Dragon than just about any other grandmaster (over 100 classical time control ones), so I know what I am talking about :)

Mrs. Pogonina is right of course. I want to point out that Black can avoid all those "only moves" of the Soltis/ Konstantinopolsky mainlines by employing the Accelerated Dragon. The only issue with this one is that if white employs the Maroczy, then you are likely to lose slowly and painfully...

One of the problems that Black faces when playing the Dragon is that there are LOTS of plans for White, while Black has to remember ALL the right moves. One step aside, and you are likely to lose quickly and painfully. Only brave people with a lot of experience and understanding of the system can employ it successfully. I would say that this opening is good as a surprise weapon, but not as a main line. And yes, I have played more games in the Dragon than just about any other grandmaster (over 100 classical time control ones), so I know what I am talking about :)

And white has the choice of either 9.0-0-0 or 9.Bc4. Both perform at about 60% for white on ICCF. From my own experience playing 1.e4 on ICCF, the defense seems to only get played as a "pet" favorite, and black often struggles to save the draw. The straight Najdorf or Sveshnikov give better fighting chances there.

For OTB, it's better used as a surprise weapon, much like when Carlsen used it. You try to specialize in it as your main defense, and you're likely to get scouted and cooked on the board.

Mrs. Pogonina is right of course. I want to point out that Black can avoid all those "only moves" of the Soltis/ Konstantinopolsky mainlines by employing the Accelerated Dragon. The only issue with this one is that if white employs the Maroczy, then you are likely to lose slowly and painfully...

Yeah, you bet your ass Ms. Pogonina is right!!! As if we needed confirmation from what... A MERE IM... haaahahahaha. You can now take your afternoon nap pfren, we don't need your raspy comments anymore now that a real GM is here.

Mrs. Pogonina is right of course. I want to point out that Black can avoid all those "only moves" of the Soltis/ Konstantinopolsky mainlines by employing the Accelerated Dragon. The only issue with this one is that if white employs the Maroczy, then you are likely to lose slowly and painfully...

Yeah, you bet your ass Ms. Pogonina is right!!! As if we needed confirmation from what... A MERE IM... haaahahahaha. You can now take your afternoon nap pfren, we don't need your raspy comments anymore now that a real GM is here.